Christian cross

==Early Christian usage==
{{See also|Christian symbolism#Early Christian symbols}}
[[File:alexorig.jpg|thumb|The [[Alexamenos graffito]]]]
[[File:Spas vsederzhitel sinay.jpg|thumb|upright|The Sinai icon of [[Christ Pantocrator]] (6th century), showing Christ with a [[cruciform halo]] and holding a book adorned with a {{Lang|la|[[crux gemmata]]}}]]

There are few extant examples of the cross in 2nd century Christian [[iconography]]. It has been argued that Christians were reluctant to use it as it depicts a purposely painful and gruesome method of public [[execution]].<ref name=McGrath321 >[https://books.google.com/books?id=v26doW8jIyYC&pg=PT261 ''Christianity: an introduction''] by Alister E. McGrath 2006 {{ISBN|1-4051-0901-7}} pages 321-323</ref> A symbol similar to the cross, the [[staurogram]], was used to abbreviate the Greek word for ''cross'' in very early [[New Testament]] [[manuscript]]s such as [[Papyrus 66|P66]], [[Papyrus 45|P45]] and [[Papyrus 75|P75]], almost like a {{lang|la|[[nomina sacra|nomen sacrum]]}}.<ref name="Hurtado">{{cite book | editor-last = Kraus | editor-first = Thomas | title = New Testament Manuscripts | publisher = Brill | location = Leiden | year = 2006 | isbn = 978-90-04-14945-8 | chapter=The staurogram in early Christian manuscripts: the earliest visual reference to the crucified Jesus? | first=Larry| last=Hutado| author-link=Larry W. Hurtado | pages=207–26 | hdl = 1842/1204 }}</ref> The extensive adoption of the cross as a Christian iconographic symbol arose from the 4th century.<ref>{{cite book | last = Stranger| first = James| editor-last = Skarsaune| editor-first = Oskar| title = Jewish Believers in Jesus The Early Centuries | publisher = Baker Academic | location = City | year = 2007 | isbn = 9780801047688 |page=715 |chapter=Archeological evidence of Jewish believers? }}</ref>

However, the cross symbol was already associated with Christians in the 2nd century, as is indicated in the anti-Christian arguments cited in the ''[[Octavius (dialogue)|Octavius]]''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-04/anf04-34.htm |title=''Octavius'' |publisher=Ccel.org |date=2005-06-01 |access-date=2011-12-10}}</ref> of [[Minucius Felix]], chapters IX and XXIX, written at the end of that century or the beginning of the next,{{refn|group=note|Minucius Felix speaks of the cross of Jesus in its familiar form, likening it to objects with a crossbeam or to a man with arms outstretched in prayer.<ref>[http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-04/anf04-34.htm#P5713_906729 Octavius of Minucius Felix], chapter XXIX]</ref>}} and by the fact that by the early 3rd century the cross had become so closely associated with Christ that [[Clement of Alexandria]], who died between 211 and 216, could without fear of ambiguity use the phrase {{lang|grc|τὸ κυριακὸν σημεῖον}} (the Lord's sign) to mean the cross, when he repeated the idea, current as early as the [[apocrypha]]l [[Epistle of Barnabas]], that the number 318 (in [[Greek numerals]], ΤΙΗ) in Genesis 14:14<ref>{{Bibleverse|Genesis|14:14}}</ref> was interpreted as a foreshadowing (a [[Typology (theology)|"type"]]) of the cross (T, an upright with crossbar, standing for 300) and of Jesus (ΙΗ, the first two letters of his name {{lang|grc|ΙΗΣΟΥΣ}}, standing for 18).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/clement-stromata-book6.html |title=Stromata, book VI, chapter XI |publisher=Earlychristianwritings.com |date=2006-02-02 |access-date=2011-12-10}}</ref> His contemporary [[Tertullian]] rejected the accusation of Christians being "adorers of the gibbet" ({{lang|la|crucis religiosi}}).{{refn|group=note|name=Tertullian|Tertullian rejects the accusation that Christians are {{lang|la|crucis religiosi}} (i.e. "adorers of the gibbet"), and returns the accusation by likening the worship of pagan idols to the worship of poles or stakes.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0301.htm|title=CHURCH FATHERS: Apology (Tertullian)|website=New Advent }}</ref> "Then, if any of you think we render superstitious adoration to the cross, in that adoration he is sharer with us. If you offer homage to a piece of wood at all, it matters little what it is like when the substance is the same: it is of no consequence the form, if you have the very body of the god. And yet how far does the Athenian Pallas differ from the stock of the cross, or the Pharian Ceres as she is put up uncarved to sale, a mere rough stake and piece of shapeless wood? Every stake fixed in an upright position is a portion of the cross; we render our adoration, if you will have it so, to a god entire and complete. We have shown before that your deities are derived from shapes modelled from the cross." [Original Latin: {{lang|la|"Sed et qui crucis nos religiosos putat, consecraneus noster erit. Cum lignum aliquod propitiatur, viderit habitus, dum materiae qualitas eadem sit; viderit forma, dum id ipsum dei corpus sit. Et tamen quanto distinguitur a crucis stipite Pallas Attica, et Ceres Pharia, quae sine effigie rudi palo et informi ligno prostat? Pars crucis est omne robur, quod erecta statione defigitur; nos, si forte, integrum et totum deum colimus. Diximus originem deorum vestrorum a plastis de cruce induci."}}}} In his book {{lang|la|De Corona}}, written in 204, Tertullian tells how it was already a tradition for Christians to trace repeatedly on their foreheads the [[sign of the cross]].{{refn|group=note|name=De Corona3|"At every forward step and movement, at every going in and out, when we put on our clothes and shoes, when we bathe, when we sit at table, when we light the lamps, on couch, on seat, in all the ordinary actions of daily life, we trace upon the forehead the sign".<ref>{{cite book|url= http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf03.iv.vi.iii.html |title=De Corona |chapter=3 |author=Tertullian}}</ref>}} The crucifix, a cross upon which an image of Christ is present, is not known to have been used until the 6th century AD.<ref>{{cite book|last=Stott|first=John|isbn=0-8308-3320-X|title=The Cross of Christ |year=2006 |publisher=InterVarsity Press |location=Downers Grove |edition=20th Anniversary |page=27}}</ref>

The oldest extant depiction of the execution of Jesus in any medium seems to be the second-century or early third-century relief on a jasper gemstone meant for use as an amulet, which is now in the [[British Museum]] in [[London]]. It portrays a naked bearded man whose arms are tied at the wrists by short strips to the transom of a T-shaped cross. An inscription in Greek on the obverse contains an invocation of the redeeming crucified Christ. On the reverse a later inscription by a different hand combines magical formulae with Christian terms.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.academia.edu/34056103|title=The Magic 'Crucifixion Gem' in the British Museum|first=Roy|last=Kotansky|date=January 1, 2017|journal=Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies|via=www.academia.edu}}</ref> The catalogue of a 2007 exhibition says: "The appearance of the Crucifixion on a gem of such an early date suggests that pictures of the subject (now lost) may have been widespread even in the late second or early third century, most likely in conventional Christian contexts".<ref name=Yale>{{Cite book |first=Felicity |last=Harley-McGowan |chapter=The Crucifixion |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/1787622 |editor=Jeffrey Spier |title=Picturing the Bible: The Earliest Christian Art |date=2007 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=9780300116830}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://crucifixbg.blogspot.com/2014/09/crucified-on-bloodstone.html|title=Earliest crucifixes: First depiction of Jesus on cross - the Bloodstone amulet|date=September 10, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=59616&partId=1|title=British Museum Collection online: magical gem / intaglio}}</ref>

''[[The Jewish Encyclopedia]]'' says:<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=899&letter=C |title=Cross |encyclopedia=[[The Jewish Encyclopedia]] |access-date=2011-12-10}}, (see Apocalypse of Mary, viii., in James, "Texts and Studies," iii. 118).</ref>

{{blockquote|The cross as a Christian symbol or "seal" came into use at least as early as the second century (see "Apost. Const." iii. 17; Epistle of Barnabas, xi.-xii.; Justin, "Apologia," i. 55–60; "Dial. cum Tryph." 85–97); and the marking of a cross upon the forehead and the chest was regarded as a talisman against the powers of demons (Tertullian, "De Corona," iii.; Cyprian, "Testimonies," xi. 21–22; Lactantius, "Divinæ Institutiones," iv. 27, and elsewhere). Accordingly the Christian Fathers had to defend themselves, as early as the second century, against the charge of being worshipers of the cross, as may be learned from Tertullian, "Apologia," xii., xvii., and Minucius Felix, "Octavius," xxix. Christians used to swear by the power of the cross[.]}}